Mindy’s Southwest Visit

It has been a long time since my last post! I guess I am getting a bit too settled in. You adapt. And it becomes your daily routine – going to work at the cliff dwellings, hiking in the evening, backpacking on my days off. Or driving an hour and a half into Silver City to resupply. Or traveling the area, exploring. It all starts to become routine. I forget that it is not my TYPICAL day-to-day life….in Columbus, that is. Columbus….it seems so far away. Actually, this is my TYPICAL day-to-day routine…..for now. I keep in contact with my family via text and email and phone calls, but with my ‘busy’ life here in the west, I have ignored by blog and my friends who read my rantings. So I apologize and plan to play a little catch-up.

Arches National Park

Mindy finally was able to get away from work and visit me out here, out in the west. I want to post some images she took while here…..her impression of the Southwest. I gave her the grand tour…… the Four Corner’s area – Utah-Colorado-Arizona-New Mexico. I made sure she saw parts of all four states. And I want to apologize to any of our friends out here that we failed to connect with during that visit. Her time was short considering all that we wanted to cover. And we will be back, I am sure.

Actually, though there were things that I wanted to share with Mindy, it was the sunshine and cloudless skies that she sought. I think she saw plenty of that….and more. I think these images show her love of the area. She/we love Ohio and the “Midwest” including her home state of New York…..BUT…..sunny skies every day! What is there not to love about the Southwest. A bit dry, maybe. Lacking the fall

Grand Canyon

colors of the Midwest, maybe. All of our friends. Sure. But that intense blue of the sky, cloudless days, beautiful rock formations, the history of the native people….. I think she was hooked, as I am. Albuquerque to Santa Fe in New Mexico, to Pagosa Springs and Durango in Colorado, to Moab, Arches and Natural Bridges in Utah to the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff in Arizona and back to Albuquerque. I handed her the camera and this is what she saw…..(with a few pictures of her smiling face thrown in.)